Communications With Passion and Purpose

After a Little PR Nirvana…

The first time I got one of my clients on CNBC was a bittersweet experience.

We got this CEO on, had him tell his story, answer some questions and establish some leadership in the industry. For those of you PR folks that have accomplished this kinda thing, you know very well that even though he was on the air for about 3 minutes, the amount of work that went into it far exceeded just 3 minutes.

So to have something like that happen fairly early on in my career, I found myself on my own dreamy little cloud nine, high-fiving myself a few times – I felt like catching a movie afterwards and calling it a day, I was feeling so good.

But within 2 hours of the CNBC spot, the CEO called me, asking, “umm….so how is that writer with the Wall Street Journal moving along…?…when do you think we’ll be able to get that interview…?” As I fielded his questions, I grew more and more upset. After hearing about a minute of this conversation, it was all blah, blah, blah to me because I was thinking to myself, “ DUDE…!…Didn’t you just sit your keester on a chair in the CNBC studios and do your thing in front of millions of viewers…?…a few hours ago…?!”

At the time, I was pretty upset about him taking me out of my little PR Nirvana. But I can look at it all now and be grateful for that jolt back into reality.

Because you have to ask yourself: What happens after you knock it out of the park…? Where do I go from here…?

I can tell you what NOT to do:

Don’t take full credit for the hit – chances are, the lead/the idea/the contact came from some kind of help. Make no mistake about it, the more you share, the more likely you are to be part of a winning team.

Don’t’ think that you’ve found a catchall formula – just because it worked this time doesn’t mean that it will work again. Keep this win in perspective – did you get lucky because you caught the assignment desk in a pinch…?…did you ‘strike gold’ because it worked for your client seasonally…?

Don’t’ think that this media coverage can stand on its own – there are other important media outlets and influencers that can ‘move the needle’ in a positive direction for your client. There’s probably a decent amount of these folks that aren’t necessarily household names, but every bit as important to your efforts.

Don’t think that your performance (nor your client’s) can’t be improved – how could that interview have gone better…?…How many ‘uhh’ and ‘well’ pauses did your spokesperson have on the air…? The reason why people like Tiger Woods, Meryl Streep and Spike Jonze keep people enthralled is because they keep refining, re-tuning and re-discovering their craft.

Don’t think that once you’ve hit one outta the park at Fenway that you can’t go back to Fenway and do it again – there will always be other opportunities to explore. You just have to be smart about it and see if there are other perspectives, ways, etc. to tell the brand’s story.

Don’t just stop here – if you can and if it doesn’t interfere with your outreach, leverage this hit for other pitches. Consider providing a link to the interview as further background and validation for what your client does.

And be sure to use this excitement after you’ve landed this kind of ink to your advantage. Keep moving forward and keep rocking – there’s a good possibility that when a nice thing like this happens, there another one or two lurking around the corner.

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11 Responses

What a fantastic post and a very important lesson. With rare exception, this is a biz where we simply can’t rest on our laurels for too long and, as pointed out, having a significant hit can actually help drive the next hit. We need to ensure we don’t lose our momentum just because we’re too busy pouring the champagne.

I had a similar experience — first 2 weeks on the job, got hits in a major daily and top trades for a client. I, of course thought, there’s nothing to this — boy was I wrong🙂

Ah… the wake up call:) Great reminder Narciso! Like athletes, PR pro’s must be keenly aware that even as bosses (and clients) and fans cheer a victory, they are thinking about the next game. Celebrate your victory, but don’t think you can rest on it.

Within your don’ts there are some very smart do’s.

-DO use the opportunity to thank/ put the spotlight on someone else who played a role in your moment of PR nirvana

– DO keep perspective. Do a postmortum and identify what was done right (as well as what role fortune played)

-DO realize you’ve got a story here… and identify who else might be interested and what other angles might work

-DO challenge yourself to step it up a notch. What you have really acheived is a new benchmark to try and top.

-DO leverage the victory. Use it to demonstrate the value of the story, the clients and yes, even yourself. But use it as an opportunity to move forward, not to rest!
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We live in a “What have you done for me lately?” culture, don’t we? Your points above speak directly to that.

But, if I may play Devil’s Advocate for a moment, I actually do think we need to take a time out and celebrate our successes once in a while. While the client may be asking for more, more, more, I think it’s important to take time to celebrate the hard work that went into a success like the one you describe above. We tend to get caught up in our client’s worlds as counselors. And for good reason–they’re paying the bills! But, I still think it’s necessary–and healthy–to take a few moments (heck, even a lunch hour) and celebrate success.

After all, isn’t that one of the reasons we all bust our butts every day?

Yepper – to Arik’s point, you don’t want to take away the oppt’y to enjoy the hit. You owe it to yourself to be proud – heck, I think that’s why batters jog (not sprint) around the bases after they hit a homerun – gives em’ a chance to enjoy the moment.

The key is to not do what I wanted to do – give youself the rest of day off to enjoy a movie or two. Appreciate what has been accomplished, but keep it in perspective with the bigger picture – cause there’s ALWAYS a bigger picture.

Cogster – your response reminds me of ‘Dorie’ from Finding Nemo, whose little mantra was ‘just keep swimming, just keep swimming…’ Keep moving forward wiht this initial excitement and see what more can be done.

Sheema – like your comment, we must always be fine-tuning our instruments and methodologies. Cause, like it or lump it, there’s ALWAYS someone out there who can do what you do better.

Valerie – I appreciate you bringing in some Do’s to the list, as well as expanding on the sports analogy. Kinda reminded me of Roger Staubach, who always seem to have a vision that far exceeded what was going on in the huddle.

David – great point about setting expectations. This is not only important for ourselves, but our clients as well – by setting a standard, we push ourselves to meet those standards. So, even if we don’t want to sing that song ‘Mandy’ (Arik, are you listening?), you give it your all and ‘work it’ – not only for your fans, but for your own work ethic.

When Tom Cruise endorsed a pair of kids ladybug shoes I had given to his daughter on Oprah show, that was not the end of it – that was the beginning of it! While I understand the want to celebrate the successes immediately, I tend to work even harder after the success happens, to fully take advantage of it and multiply the success.

I actually think that you miss opportunities if you stop and celebrate after the first home run – once you have a couple of them under your belt, rest of it tends to work itself and you don’t have to hunt down the opportunities that hard anymore, they start coming to you…

Now, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t celebrate – do so, but just don’t let that get on the way of even bigger success😉

I really dig this post. It’s nice to hear that other people have had similar experiences. Obviously it’s important to celebrate your victories, but putting them in perspective is important too. And take it as a compliment that your clients have that much faith in you🙂

On a different, but related note, early on, I’d celebrate just landing an interview or taping for my client, only to have it never see the light of day. I learned fast to never celebrate until something actually ran or aired.